Our present invention relates to a garment hook, especially a transparent garment hook for use with lingerie, swimsuits and other garments in which a strap is to be connected to another part of the garment. More particularly, the invention relates to a garment hook of the type which has an eye through which a strap can be looped and a hook which is engageable with the aforementioned other part of the garment.
Garment hooks of the type mentioned are widely used in lingerie, undergarments, brassieres and swimsuits and wherever it may be necessary to releasably engage a strap with another part of the garment. Such garment hooks can have an eye through which the strip is looped and a hook which is inserted through some opening in the garment, e.g. another strap or a loop formed in a fabric piece integral with or attached to the garment and in which the fastener is retained by the hook end which can project beyond that fabric loop.
Garment hooks of this type are frequently bulky, insufficiently strong and unsightly. If injection molded, for example, from a synthetic resin they have a tendency to crack where the hook adjoins the body of the fastener and in many cases, the stress to which the hook is subjected can form stress cracks at the junction of the hook with the body and which, even if they do not lead to breakage, are unsightly, especially if the fastener is fabricated in a transparent material.
In modern fashion, it is frequently desirable to fabricate such fasteners from transparent material and hence the problem has become especially pronounced with more modern lingerie, brassieres and swimsuits.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a fastener, e.g. a garment hook, especially for lingerie, brassieres and swimsuits, whereby the drawbacks mentioned previously are obviated and the fastener is strong, free from cracks which may render the fastener unsightly and is easy to use.
Another object of the invention is to provide a garment hook for the purposes described which has a relatively slim appearance but nevertheless has high strength and can be employed without bunching up of the straps or other garment parts to which the fastener is applied.
These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention, in a garment hook which comprises a hook body of a synthetic resin material formed with a bight, a loop arm extending from the bight and a hook arm juxtaposed with the loop arm, the loop arm being formed with an elongated eye adapted to receive a strap of a garment, the hook arm being formed with a hook at an end thereof opposite the bight, the hook arm defining an elongated gap with the loop arm whereby the hook arm is insertable through an opening in the garment, the bight being substantially semicircular and the arms at ends opposite the bight being thinner than the bight.
The garment hook of the invention can have its arms form thickness steps with the bight or arms which taper continuously from the bight to the ends of the arms opposite the bight. The bight can be of substantially trapezoidal outwardly tapering cross section and, as noted, the body can be substantially transparent and is preferably composed of a polycarbonate.
An important feature of the invention is that the cross section of the body at the bight is T-shaped. To this end, the gap and the eye can terminate proximal to the bight in a web of a thickness less than that of the bight and forming the shank of the T-section whose head is the bight itself. We have found that when the hook arm is curvilinearly convex toward the loop eye and the eye is defined between two longitudinal edges which are also convex toward the hook arm, the strap and the other garment part are evenly distributed or centered in the gap and in the eye and do not tend to bunch at either end of the gap or the eye. Preferably the hook arm also has a bulge substantially midway of its length and projecting toward the loop arm.